Central pulmonary embolism diagnosed by real-time endobronchial ultrasound

Introduction: Life threatening central pulmonary embolism (PE) is defined as thrombotic occlusion of the main pulmonary trunk or of main or lobar pulmonary artery. These vessels accompany the trachea, the main and lobar bronchi at a distance of less than 5mm. Chest-CT enhanced with iv contrast (Angio-CT) has become the principal imaging modality to evaluate suspected, central PE. Here we report imaging of central PE using real-time endobronchial ultrasound (rtEBUS). Aim: Feasibility of diagnosing central PE by rtEBUS in an imaging quality comparable with Angio-CT. Methods: In 20 case-reports we compared the visu…